NEWPORT — Saturday’s bill at the JVC Jazz Festival-Newport closed with Aretha Franklin, so it was only fitting that yesterday featured another classic voice at the top of the bill — Sonny Rollins.

The songs and structures weren’t groundbreaking, but that wasn’t the point: The legendary saxophonist’s tone was more than enough to satisfy the announced crowd of 6,000 at Fort Adams, as he and his band worked through one-chord jazz-funk on the opening “Sonny Please,” the sprightly standard “Someday I’ll Find You,” the lush ballad “In a Sentimental Mood” and more. Rollins soloed on chorus after chorus on a thrilling marathon version of the calypso-influenced “Global Warning,” and throughout the 77-year-old continued to demonstrate his mastery of the language that generations of saxophone players have worked to match — as expressive as a human voice, only better, with eternal sustain, elephantine howls and bottom-of-the barrel growls.

Meanwhile, Soulive was levitating the second-stage crowd with lean, mean funk, including a guest appearance from trombonist Fred Wesley (who did the same favor for Lettuce on Saturday) and from singer Anthony Hamilton, who was on his way out, saw Soulive doing a fiery version of Sly Stone’s “If You Want Me to Stay” and got in on the fun. (Hamilton scrapped the blues project he had announced for his main-stage performance and went with his new-yet-retro R&B. His sweet voice showed a nice falsetto and the spirited singer at one point leapt from the stage and went deeper into the crowd than any Newport performer in recent memory.)

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Herbie Hancock preceded Rollins on the main stage with a set bookended by funky fusion featuring electronic keyboard squiggles from Hancock and explosive drumming from Vinnie Colaiuta. The rest of Hancock’s band stayed with him: Dave Holland provided more funk on electric and acoustic bass; guitarist Lionel Loueke and saxophonist Chris Potter provided solo power. Hancock mixed in a contemplative version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” (with vocals from Sonya Kitchell) from his recent Grammy-winning album River: The Joni Letters, as well as a guitar-heavy deconstruction of U2’s “When Love Comes to Town.” Loueke played with his own band on the second stage earlier in the day, his electronically-enhanced acoustic guitar providing melodic and percussive structure and with electronically enhanced vocalese that included the unique tongue pops of the Umbaq’an.

Potter was everywhere over the weekend, playing with his own group on the second stage and guesting with the Marco Benevento Trio after his set with Hancock (and halfway through the trio’s) — all on top of two sets yesterday. “He’s one of my favorite artists,” festival co-producer Jason Olaine said by way of explaining the quintuple booking; “It was one big blur,” was Potter’s exhausted assessment at the end of the weekend. “I don’t think I have any more shows today,” he cracked.

On the third stage, expectations were big for Esperanza Spalding, the 23-year-old singing and upright bass-playing wunderkind, and she caused a sensation, starting off with a 10-minute version of her own “I Adore You” and including a version of Betty Carter’s “Jazz Ain’t Nothing But Soul” and the sleekly modern original “She Got to You.”

Mixing a pop melodic sensibility with serious jazz chops (her own and her crack young band’s), and performing with an obvious and infectious glee, Spalding, who earlier pronounced herself “stoked” to play Newport, continued to establish herself as a star on the rise. (“She’s got that magic,” said festival impresario George Wein.)

Guillermo Klein Y Los Guachos played twice yesterday, adding a Latin tinge with “Fuge X,” attacking a simple structure with fiery solos during “Va Roman” and adding joyous trumpet blasts to “Child’s Play.”

Wein led The Newport All-Stars on the main stage in flying the flag for pre-bop straight-ahead jazz, leading his quintet from the piano while also giving guitarist Howard Alden and clarinetist Anat Cohen a duet on “Shreveport Stomp” and Spalding a solo spotlight, before ending with a sweet, simple vocal take on “Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams.”

rmassimo@projo.com